Brian Mark - Guitaraholic

July is panning out to be a busy month playing. We're playing Omaha on 7/7, Maiden plays Lincoln on 7/9, we're playing Des Moines on 7/15, and we just added Kansas City on 7/29. That's three shows across three states in one month, and then we're supposed to head to Rapid City during bike week. That brings us to the next one, though... the venue may have fallen through. The host of the show is now scrambling to find a new location to set up his stage and food trucks for that show. I should know soon if it's actually happening or not, but we're really hoping to have 4 states in under a month. Either way, it was very nice to be asked. What other states can we add yet this summer? I'm sure there are a few. We got asked to play in Colorado, but we're still waiting on details for that. Kansas wouldn't be too bad of a drive. Anyone have suggestions for us?

Well, here it is. Our first BIG show announcement. We've been asked, less than 6 months after our first show, to play Monsters of Madness Tribute Fest in Rapid City during the Sturgis bike rally. While it's not in "Sturgis proper", this might actually be to our benefit as we'll be right next to Rapid City Harley Davidson, which gets a huge number of visitors every day and we'll be on an outdoor stage, so people can hear us without entering an establishment. We'll be playing Aug 4 at 4:30, 6th at 10:00 and the 7th at 6:30. There are some big names that we'll be sharing the stage with, but more on that later. For now, we're playing and need to start figuring out logistics.

I didn't get anything posted last month. Consider this an apology to everyone who reads this regularly. But, I think there was good reason. Things are really picking up for the Maiden tribute band. I've taken over booking duties, and so far it's going well. We have a show coming up later this month, I'm working on closing the deal on a 2 night Maiden Weekend party leading up to their show on July 9th, we're playing a B.A.C.A. benefit in Des Moines the following weekend, and we've been asked to play something else that I'm working on a contract for. I can't spill the beans on that one yet, but let's just say Trump would be proud, because it'll be "YUUUGE!" Also of note is that we have done a video shoot for a promo. Between the audio and video, it was almost 10 hours in studios. Once it's released (should be early next month), I'll be sure to post it here. Until then, here's a peek at our video set. So, on that note...

It's funny how the dance floor doesn't really fill in for Iron Maiden even though we had 150+ people in the audience. I guess it's just not dance material. Anyway, here's some performance video to give you a taste of the Voyage from our first public performance. This was before gear upgrades (Adrian Smith signature guitar for Bill, my JMP-1 and Marshall power amp, etc.)

Since I'm pretty much sticking to the Iron Maiden tribute band, I've been able to knock down the number of pedals I require. So... for starters... I got rid of a lot of the bulk. No need for a second volume pedal, reverb, delay, etc. Very simple signal path... wireless into volume into A/B/Y which either goes to the EHX pedals for some synth sounds or on to the... Marshall JMP-1. That's right, I found a vintage piece of gear with tubes in it which is the same model as Maiden themselves use. Sort of takes the guesswork out of getting the right tone when their settings are well documented online. Both of the signal paths go to a side of my Marshall 8008, with an old school Digitech DSP 128+ adding a bit of verb and delay to the guitar side of things. The only other thing I have been using is a power conditioner and I'm probably going to add my Noise Clamp back in the loop at some point, but hide it in the rack. Otherwise, it's pretty straight forward and m...

After practicing with the guys in the Maiden tribute for a while now, we have some shows coming up. The first 2 are scheduled for sure, with 2 more probables before springtime and a whole bunch starting to come together for the spring and summer months. Good thing I got a larger vehicle. My guitar cab wouldn't even fit in the back of my Jaguar. haha. January 27th and February 24th are confirmed dates for now, with February 10th being a possible. I'll try to post up a few videos from those shows. We seem to have a lot of interest locally and regionally already, so this could end up being a very busy year. All shows are currently being put on our Facebook page .